Great Scott
by Mags0607
Summary: Set ten years in the future, one of our favorite Tree Hillians gets a moment in the spotlight. He tells us of his inspirations, and the people and places that have made him who he is today.


Hey guys, this was written as a challenge for another board. The objective was to interview one of the characters for a magazine ten years in the future, and se what their life was like, and what they were famous for. This is what I came up with, hope you like...

And, if you read my other stories, I promise I have not fallen off the face of the earth and you will get an update for both very soon.

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**Great Scott!**

**Award-winning author Lucas Scott reveals the inspirations behind his success.**

Lucas Scott is not your typical author. Standing at least six-feet tall with the body of a basketball star, you would picture him more as the guy on the court than the one writing about it. Nevertheless, he has just been named to the New York Times bestseller list for the fifteenth straight week for his first book, _The Rivercourt_. The book, aptly named for the place where his basketball dreams both began and ended, outlines the struggle of six friends growing up in a small basketball driven town in North Carolina. Inspired by his personal experiences and those of his friends, _The Rivercourt _has turned the literary world upside down. The twenty-eight year-old is no stranger to the spotlight, however; having gained notoriety long before he started penning the next great American novel. In addition to being one of the country's hottest authors, he is also the manager of the NBA's golden boy, Nathan Scott, his half brother and usual partner-in-crime.

It seems as if celebrity is abundant for people from Lucas' hometown, and it just so happens that a few of them are stars of this book. As I entered the penthouse suite he shares with his wife of seven years, I hear the playful banter of sibling rivalry. Nathan and Lucas are perched in the penthouse's entertainment room, playing _NBA Shoot Out_ with such intensity that one would think it was the actual NBA finals. He pauses the game to greet us, and laughs as Nathan pouts, and meanders out of the room.

Lucas is dressed comfortably yet stylishly in a pair of faded Diesel jeans and a light blue polo shirt, which seem to only magnify his handsome features and sparkling blue eyes. He looks as though he stepped out of a Gap commercial, and even this journalist can't help but be awed by his boy-next-door persona. You can tell just by his nature that he is a quiet, introspective soul, but the presence of his brother, joking and laughing, seems to make him much more at ease.

We walk into his vast, sparse but stylishly decorated living room, and he grins as his wife, _Clothes Over Bros _C.E.O. Brooke Davis, runs in to make sure she didn't miss any of his big interview. He lights up the moment she enters the room, and its obvious that even after so many years, they are still insanely in love. With a quick kiss to his lips, she wishes him luck and winks as she pulls the French doors closed, whispering " have fun , Broody" on the way out. I raise a curious eye at the nickname, but Lucas just flashes his infamous Scott smirk at me and I realize that I'm not going to get any clarification.

When asked if he's ready to start, Lucas smiles warmly and says, "My life is already and open book, so what's a few more questions." I laugh fondly at him and start the interview.

I begin by asking what inspired him to write this witty, sometimes dramatic, almost epic coming of age story that closely resembles his own life. He leans back on the stylishly decorated wing-back chair and grins as he begins his answer. "Actually my old high school basketball coach inspired me to do this, and the book is dedicated to his memory. He passed away a little over two years ago, but I will never forget one of the last things he said to me. He said, 'Son, y'all always caused trouble, so you couldn't write anything stranger if you tried.' I laughed at the time, but then sat down with his words in mind and couldn't stop writing."

For those of you who don't know, Lucas' high school basketball coach was the great Brian Durham, coaching legend and recent inductee to the high school basketball hall of fame. As he quotes his old mentor, his tone mimics the man, a hearty southern drawl escaping from his lips. You can tell 'Whitey,' as they called him, meant a lot to Lucas, and the adoration in his voice at the memory is clearly evident.

It seems funny to me, that a man with this rare breed of athleticism and training, would grow up not to be a basketball star, but rather a prize winning journalist. "Where did your writing talent and love of writing come from?" I ask the question, watching as his blue orbs get intensely deeper, and even more focused.

"Growing up, I loved to read. If I didn't have a basketball in hand, I was sitting, quietly reading. My best friend Haley always used to tease me about it, but it was something I couldn't help. I loved it, and it was almost as much a part of me as basketball. So, when I found out my senior year that basketball wasn't an option, I applied to Brown and studied literature."

"You tell in the book about the disease that led you to leaving basketball behind. How is it to have to live with something like that everyday?"

He shifts a little in the chair, and an apprehensive look passing over his features. He takes a moment, but answers the question anyway, even though anyone can tell its not an easy subject. "Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy isn't an easy thing to deal with, especially as a teenager in love with a game. It was hard back then to leave it all behind, but watching my friends and family also lose things that they loved, I knew I couldn't take the chance with my health and keep playing. So, I walked away. There was only one person that had known about the disease, and it was one of the hardest things I had to do to tell my whole word. I did it though, and it opened others doors that I may not have looked towards. Plus my friends, my brother, and most of all my mom, were so supportive that it made it easier to deal with."

Now, when most people talk about their friends, they're not famous designers, basketball players, recording artists, gallery owners and child-care experts, but those are exactly the group of people that were small-town friends ten years ago. Names like Nathan Scott, Haley-James Scott, Brooke Davis, Peyton Sawyer and Jake Jaglieski are not ones that normal people would throw about with such ease, but to this manager-turned-author, they are simply his friends.

"You have some very famous friends who were the obvious inspirations for the characters in the book. How did they take the news that you were going to display their stories along with yours to the whole world?"

He smiles again, knowing that the people that inspired the characters in the book would be brought into question eventually. "They were great about it actually. I changed the names of the characters in the book to bring a certain anonymity to it, but these five people were always known as my inspiration for everything that unfolded. When all of this was happening to us in high school, it seemed like the whole town knew, so why not the whole world. We are all still great friends, and this book is just as much theirs as it is mine. Our high school experiences were things that a lot of people that age go through and can relate to. I just let the whole world take a peak at some of the typical things we experienced in high school.

Typical doesn't seem to quite explain some of the things that Mr. Scott writes about as if they were everyday occurrences. There are not many people in the world that deal with school shootings, near fatal car accidents, friends running off on famous singing careers, others running away in search of missing daughters, and other things of the like. "It seems like all of you had such extraordinary high school lives, how were you able to relate your crazy experiences to the masses. How could one town hold so much drama?" I know that the answer that is sure to follow is one that will pull at my heartstrings even more than the book already has.

"I think it may be something in the water. Tree Hill just seemed to invoke scandal, and since there wasn't too much to do, it seemed drama was its favorite pass-time, besides basketball of course." He jokingly replies before continuing, "No seriously, most of the stuff in that book was based on reality, but some may have been embellished a little. We all had our fair share of problems, and even though some of them were stranger than others, we still dealt with them the same way anyone our age would have, but I tried to make the book focus on the friendship and family dynamics instead of the obvious drama."

Obvious drama indeed. He goes on to tell me that even with the unusual things that seemed to jump out from the pages, that our favorite Tree Hillians seemed to have typical teen angst as well. "Sure there were petty fights, broken hearts, love triangles, and the pressures of popularity, but those things are what made this whole thing mean something to the people who sit down to read it. Everyone has hardships in high school, my friends and I just got to share our stories with the whole world."

This book is more than just friendships and relationships, family is another central theme of the book, and the story between the two brothers that now seem so close, is one that can garner anyone's attention. Two brothers, only months apart, born to two different women and raised in two totally different lives, both dealing with the love of the same game and their differing emotions for the same man.; it makes for a great tale.

"In the book, you make many references to the relationship with your father. Has that changed since the time _The Rivercourt _was set?"

He nods again and takes a deep breath, "My father and I, along with Nathan, have patched up our differences. I had a very rocky relationship with Dan Scott for a while, but we've come to understand each other much better over the last few years. I think that both Nathan and I now understand why he did some of the things that he did to both of us, and it made us stronger men in the end. Dan has made his fair share of mistakes, and in turn he has to pay for some of them, but we've learned that it is easier just to move on and let the past be in the past."

One thing that both Scott brothers inherited from there father was their love and aptitude for the game that intertwined all of their lives. "Basketball seems to be such a focus in your relationship with your mother, father, friends, and even with Nathan. What role did basketball play in this book even making it to the paper?" I ask, enthralled by the stories that he's told and the tangled web the book has created.

"Well, basketball is where it all started. In Tree Hill, basketball was just a way of life, and the Scott men were infamous players even before Nathan and I picked up a ball. It was the catalyst that made so many different worlds collide. I loved the game from the time I was born, but never played for our high school team until my junior year. That's when basketball forced me to interact with people I had never talked to before, and it also gave me a chance to actually know the brother I had been estranged from most of my life. I named the book _The Rivercourt_, because that's where it all started. From the first game I played against Nathan, that's where the real story began. Before that point, we were six separate people, but after that game and that day, we began the journeys that would bind us all together in ways we never thought possible."

"Like the teenage marriage of your half-brother to your best friend?" I ask, to which he smiles. The whole world knows that Nathan and Haley Scott have had the great American romance, but the beginnings of their epic love story brought the two brothers from being barely friends to becoming more than family.

"Your relationship with Nathan is another main focus of this coming of age story. How did you deal with having to get to know your own flesh and blood once you two were nearly adults?"

"It wasn't an easy journey," he laughs. "I had always known of Nathan, but knew actually knew him. We both thought we had nothing in common in the beginning, and when he went after Haley, we were almost forced to co-exist in the same circle because of two very different types of love for the same girl. Haley made us see past our differences, and basketball helped to cement our similarities. Once we quit resenting each other for reasons we really never understood, we came to be brothers." He laughs aloud before inserting the last part. "Now that's not to say that we don't want to kill each other half the time, but that's a whole different story."

I laugh along with him, and then prepare to ask him about the two women that occupied his romantic interest throughout the book, and his life. "The young man in the book was in love with two very different girls who happened to be best friends. How did that saga play out in real life?"

"Back then, I was a young kid who didn't know what his head and his heart wanted. After a few years and some obvious heartbreak, I finally wised up to what my heart seemingly knew all along. Brooke Davis is my soul mate, and I'm man enough to admit that I love her with every fiber of my being. I was just lucky as hell that she loves me back and never really gave up on me."

I brace myself as I ask the next question. "And Peyton?"

To my surprise, no daggers are being aimed in my direction. "Peyton is still one of my very best friends, and I do love her. It just took us both a while to realize that we loved each other, but it was only as friends. There were two other people that had ultimately stolen both of our hearts."

I nod, understanding his response, and find myself being sucked into the lives that these people led all those years ago. Lucas and the book both have a way of making you want to invest in their lives, and make you care about what happens to the people they focus on.

"Is there anything more you want to tell us about the book or yourself?" Lucas leans in and stops for a moment trying to find the right words with which to send us on our way.

"_The Rivercourt _is something I am very proud of because I lived it. Peyton, Jake, Nathan, Haley and most of all Brooke, were there with me side-by side, and this is how I chose to honor our friendship. I hope you welcome this book into both your homes and your hearts, and that each of you will be able to find a little piece of each of us in your own lives. This is a journey that I that I felt needed to be told, and I am so thankful that so many of you chose to take the journey with us."

"As the book ends, there are still a lot of unanswered questions for all of our favorite Tree Hillians. "Is there any chance that we're going to see the answers in print anytime soon, or any chance you want to tell us what has happened between the six of you all after the last chapter of the book?"

He smiles, once again giving me a grin that makes me realize why everyone was so drawn to him in the first place, and lets me in on a little secret. " I wrote the end of the book and left it off at a point where most of our destinies had yet to be decided. It was the journey through our last years of high school, and I felt like the ending of that milestone in our lives was the opportune place to end the journey."

I can't help but wonder how the friendships and relationships have further developed between these people between the books culmination and the present, so I ask. He responds by saying, "All the loose ends have been tied up since the book ended. We grew up, grew closer, and came to terms with what our high school selves went through during those two years. The six of us have a bond, one that could never be broken no matter what, and we've all found ways to heal old wounds. I love every person that I wrote about, and I would love for the world to see what happens next."

Well, I for one, would love to find out where the journey leads to next, and I'm sure most of the country expresses the same sentiment. I ask lightly if the next few years are as dramatic as entertaining as the first two, and I get a nod in response. But nothing more. Lucas has left this reader wanting more, and I doubt I am alone.

I thank Lucas as we conclude the interview, and he invites me to stick around for a little while to maybe shoot some hoops. We're joined once again by Brooke Davis, who immediately is at his side, smiling all the while. Even Nathan reappears, hoping to resume the game that was abandoned nearly an hour ago, and he sticks around to take a couple of candid shots with his favorite brother. The pictures are taken, the comments are made, and you can feel the strong sense of family that flows between them, even though there is a stranger in the room. _The Rivercourt _is a book that will surely be heralded as one of the greats, and that is made possible by the connection between the people who inspired the dialogue in its pages, and emotion in its words. As Lucas waves goodbye and I am on my way, I can't help but feel as if now, by meeting him, I have become a small part of the world he so eloquently described.

I recall the meeting I just had with the charming Lucas Scott while later sitting at my desk; notes in one hand, book in the other, and I can't help but steal a quote from _The Rivercourt _to end my interview with the captivating, yet quiet, author. "How many moments can you point to and say, 'that's when it all changed?' Well you just had one."

I can't think that maybe, with his new success and his old friendships to support him, that he may have just been able to point to one more moment where everything changed. Maybe it will be the inspiration for his next literary work of art.


End file.
